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Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark
Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark (1972) was the first gathering of Celia Fremlin's short fiction, a form in which she had published prolifically - for the likes of She , Playmen , and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine - while building her reputation as a novelist of psychological suspense.Female characters predominate in these tales, as does the doom-filled atmosphere that was Fremlin's metier. She explores her familiar theme of strained mother-child relations, but she also delves into the supernatural realm as well as the psychological. As ever, her capacities for making the everyday unnerving and keeping the reader guessing are richly in evidence.'Here are thirteen harrowing tales by the indisputable mistress of horror.' Chattanooga Times'An outstanding collection...all are well-written and all are possible and none should be read when alone in a dark house.' Savannah Morning News
159 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1970
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663 people want to read
About the author
Celia Fremlin
81 books88 followersCelia was born in Kingsbury, now part of London, England. She was the daughter of Heaver Fremlin and Margaret Addiscott. Her older brother, John H. Fremlin, later became a nuclear physicist. Celia studied at Somerville College, Oxford University. From 1942 to 2000 she lived in Hampstead, London. In 1942 she married Elia Goller, with whom she had three children; he died in 1968. In 1985, Celia married Leslie Minchin, who died in 1999. Her many crime novels and stories helped modernize the sensation novel tradition by introducing criminal and (rarely) supernatural elements into domestic settings. Her 1958 novel The Hours Before Dawn won the Edgar Award in 1960.
With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.
Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]
With Jeffrey Barnard, she was co-presenter of a BBC2 documentary “Night and Day” describing diurnal and nocturnal London, broadcast 23 January 1987.
Fremlin was an advocate of assisted suicide and euthanasia. In a newspaper interview she admitted to assisting four people to die.[1] In 1983 civil proceedings were brought against her as one of the five members of the EXIT Executive committee which had published “A Guide to Self Deliverance” , but the court refused to declare the booklet unlawful.
[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Celia...]
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
October 1, 2025
Well done to Faber for re-issuing Fremlin, and this collection of thirteen short stories is a good taster of her skills.
Twisted and twisty, these take place within the domestic sphere where the pressures of gendered expectations take their toll on women: 'The Quiet Game', for example, is a superb evocation of a mother with two children in a tower block, caught between bored kids and neighbours sensitive to noise in flats without adequate sound-proofing. Only Fremlin creates horror from this urban scenario.
Other tales have a supernatural edge ('The Hated House', 'The Special Gift'), or are more suspenseful with a psychological aspect. Importantly, they almost all explore issues around marriage or mother-child relationships. There's quite a Freudian edge in the extensive use of dreams and how they might intrude into the real world.
Imaginative, a little creepy, often unexpected, Fremlin seems to have brimmed over with plots, many of which could have made full-length novels. If you like Shirley Jackson, you should try Fremlin even if her writing is stylistically plainer.
Twisted and twisty, these take place within the domestic sphere where the pressures of gendered expectations take their toll on women: 'The Quiet Game', for example, is a superb evocation of a mother with two children in a tower block, caught between bored kids and neighbours sensitive to noise in flats without adequate sound-proofing. Only Fremlin creates horror from this urban scenario.
Other tales have a supernatural edge ('The Hated House', 'The Special Gift'), or are more suspenseful with a psychological aspect. Importantly, they almost all explore issues around marriage or mother-child relationships. There's quite a Freudian edge in the extensive use of dreams and how they might intrude into the real world.
Imaginative, a little creepy, often unexpected, Fremlin seems to have brimmed over with plots, many of which could have made full-length novels. If you like Shirley Jackson, you should try Fremlin even if her writing is stylistically plainer.
November 20, 2017
Having read two of Celia Fremlin's books now, The Hours Before Dawn, and this rather wonderful and chilling short story collection, I feel that I can say with some compunction that she is an undeservedly neglected writer. I have plans to read all of her books - and she was rather prolific, it must be said - over the next couple of years on the strength of just these two tomes, as what I have seen within both has impressed me no end.
Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark: Short Stories, which has recently been reissued, along with the rest of Fremlin's work, by Faber Finds, includes a fascinating and insightful introduction by Chris Simmons, which tells of the author's life and inspiration: 'Here was a middle-class woman who seemed to delight in re-inventing herself; and while all writers draw upon their own experiences to some existent, "reinvention" is the key to any artist's longevity.' He goes on to praise her writing, saying that Fremlin 'succeeded in chilling and thrilling her readers without spilling so much as a drop of blood.'
Simmons also states that Fremlin's work in its entirety offers 'authentic snapshots of how people lived at the time of her writing: how they interacted, what values they held... Every interaction between her characters has a core of truth and should strike a resonant note.' Indeed, that is very much the case with this collection of short fiction. The tales here are variously described as 'eclectic, delectable, perfectly formed nibbles'.
The overarching feeling one gets from Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark is an unsettling one, with something sinister waiting just around the corner. The first piece in the collection, 'The Quiet Game', for instance, has a second paragraph which begins thus: 'But madness has a rhythm of its own up there so near to the clouds; a rhythm that at first you would not recognize, so near is it, in the beginning, to the rhythms of ordinary, cheerful life...'.
Fremlin's writing throughout is strong. In 'The New House', for example, she writes: 'The hatred seemed to thicken round her - I could feel giant waves of it converging on her, mounting silently, silkily, till they hung poised above her head in ghostly, silent strength.' The stories here come from a more mature point in Fremlin's life, written as they were whilst the author was in her fifties. There is, perhaps unsurprisingly with that in mind, an emphasis upon ageing, and the stories which deal with senility are the most chilling of all.
Each of the stories within Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark is vivid and perfectly paced. Some of them have otherworldly and fantastical elements to them, but the way in which they and their characters have been built and presented smacks of realism, which serves to make the whole even more unsettling. Each story is filled to the brim with tension, suspense and intrigue, but at no point is anything overdone. Rather, Fremlin's writing is incredibly controlled, and every single one of her characters is startlingly realistic. The tales veer off in unexpected directions, making Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark both surprising and compelling. Fremlin demonstrates on every page that she truly is a marvellous writer, one which deserves to be read far more widely.
Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark: Short Stories, which has recently been reissued, along with the rest of Fremlin's work, by Faber Finds, includes a fascinating and insightful introduction by Chris Simmons, which tells of the author's life and inspiration: 'Here was a middle-class woman who seemed to delight in re-inventing herself; and while all writers draw upon their own experiences to some existent, "reinvention" is the key to any artist's longevity.' He goes on to praise her writing, saying that Fremlin 'succeeded in chilling and thrilling her readers without spilling so much as a drop of blood.'
Simmons also states that Fremlin's work in its entirety offers 'authentic snapshots of how people lived at the time of her writing: how they interacted, what values they held... Every interaction between her characters has a core of truth and should strike a resonant note.' Indeed, that is very much the case with this collection of short fiction. The tales here are variously described as 'eclectic, delectable, perfectly formed nibbles'.
The overarching feeling one gets from Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark is an unsettling one, with something sinister waiting just around the corner. The first piece in the collection, 'The Quiet Game', for instance, has a second paragraph which begins thus: 'But madness has a rhythm of its own up there so near to the clouds; a rhythm that at first you would not recognize, so near is it, in the beginning, to the rhythms of ordinary, cheerful life...'.
Fremlin's writing throughout is strong. In 'The New House', for example, she writes: 'The hatred seemed to thicken round her - I could feel giant waves of it converging on her, mounting silently, silkily, till they hung poised above her head in ghostly, silent strength.' The stories here come from a more mature point in Fremlin's life, written as they were whilst the author was in her fifties. There is, perhaps unsurprisingly with that in mind, an emphasis upon ageing, and the stories which deal with senility are the most chilling of all.
Each of the stories within Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark is vivid and perfectly paced. Some of them have otherworldly and fantastical elements to them, but the way in which they and their characters have been built and presented smacks of realism, which serves to make the whole even more unsettling. Each story is filled to the brim with tension, suspense and intrigue, but at no point is anything overdone. Rather, Fremlin's writing is incredibly controlled, and every single one of her characters is startlingly realistic. The tales veer off in unexpected directions, making Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark both surprising and compelling. Fremlin demonstrates on every page that she truly is a marvellous writer, one which deserves to be read far more widely.
December 30, 2022
Not scary, just very strange and unsettling and usually, that is even worse.
December 2, 2024
I really enjoyed this collection of short stories, they were dark and sometimes disturbing, written very much in the vein of Shirley Jackson. Like Jackson, these stories were written back when societal roles for men and women were very different, and that added something for me, once again they played in black and white in my head.
I've never read Celia Fremlin before but I'll be keeping an eye out for more by her, 4 stars.
I've never read Celia Fremlin before but I'll be keeping an eye out for more by her, 4 stars.
January 2, 2025
After quite long decision “to buy or not to buy” this Celia Fremlin, I finally purchased it right after I finished reading Eliza Clark’s She’s Always Hungry (oh God I really love her book!). I have read some good reviews about Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark and I couldn’t stop thinking about it since.
Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark consists of 13 short stories which collected and being republished under Faber (this edition has beautiful cover design than US edition). I have read 2 of it from Faber Stories (it’s like Penguin Modern Classic). And from that, I catch the vibes of how Celia Fremlin built her stories.
She always has female lead character in most of her stories. I didn’t look up any further about why (perhaps it connected with 2nd wave feminism in US?). All I did is just read and enjoy her writing.
I could recall how some of her stories here reminds me with Shirley Jackson and Leonora Carrington. It has the ending with eerie feeling and make me gasp because I didn’t think it would be end like that. There is also a story which has the same vibe as Jason Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures (I know, this only my feeling). The way Celia Fremlin using something ghostly and monstrous just make me want to read hers more (Uncle Paul could be my next read).
In short, Don’t Go to Sleep in The Dark is something horror-dark-twisty-written by woman reader should enjoy.
Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark consists of 13 short stories which collected and being republished under Faber (this edition has beautiful cover design than US edition). I have read 2 of it from Faber Stories (it’s like Penguin Modern Classic). And from that, I catch the vibes of how Celia Fremlin built her stories.
She always has female lead character in most of her stories. I didn’t look up any further about why (perhaps it connected with 2nd wave feminism in US?). All I did is just read and enjoy her writing.
I could recall how some of her stories here reminds me with Shirley Jackson and Leonora Carrington. It has the ending with eerie feeling and make me gasp because I didn’t think it would be end like that. There is also a story which has the same vibe as Jason Rekulak’s Hidden Pictures (I know, this only my feeling). The way Celia Fremlin using something ghostly and monstrous just make me want to read hers more (Uncle Paul could be my next read).
In short, Don’t Go to Sleep in The Dark is something horror-dark-twisty-written by woman reader should enjoy.
August 17, 2025
4.5 stars. Impressed by the atmosphere and tension Fremlin brings to such short works.
January 12, 2025
1. The Quiet Game: Sparse, yet mostly effective. Builds a sense of horror from proximity to others, the nexus point of the burdens imposed by the old and young upon the middle-aged.
2. The Betrayal: Wholly underwhelming. The conclusion is lackluster to the point of undermining any other effective quality in the piece.
3. The New House: I'm hoping this issue of pacing doesn't continue through the rest of these stories. Fremlin sets an effective tone and builds suspense towards a climax, but that climax seems to come too suddenly and leaves a sense of dissatisfaction.
4. Last Day of Spring: A triumph, and managed in such few words. The best so far, and not particularly close to the three that came before.
5. The Special Gift: A lovely tale that blends all too real social horror with the suggestion of the supernatural, or at least the incomprehensible. Enjoyable from start to finish.
6. Old Daniel's Treasure: There seems to be some significance to Thursday for Fremlin. One could see it as an island, trapped between the week and weekend, but for the older characters it seemingly haunts it is a horror of the lives of others, taking their private joys and leaving the old in private misery. On the whole, this story is an entertaining piece of irony.
7. For Ever Fair: Another solid story that leaves you wanting just a little bit more.
8. The Irony of Fate: A bit of a miss - the moral centre of this story seems juvenile.
9. The Baby Sitter: Leaves a pit of despair in the stomach, not at any real feeling of dread for mother and child but for the vomit-inducing xenophobia of the viewpoint character. This is clearly intentional, and makes for a decently compelling read.
10. The Hated House: This brings a deeply compassionate understanding out of well-trod domestic scenes, although it does appear a bit rushed in its conclusion.
11. Angel-Face: “Look, Mummy!” he exclaimed, bringing the book over to me “Look, this one hasn’t got a beak!”
Excellent.
12. The Fated Interview: There is the potential for a compelling mystery and resolution here, but Fremlin's tendency to rush is at its worst. The seeds of the revelation are never planted, and so the audience is not able to speculate or engage in any meaningful sense.
13. The Locked Room: A thin idea that would not really benefit from further exploration nor from the brief telling Fremlin provides. A weak ending to a collection plagued by weak endings.
2. The Betrayal: Wholly underwhelming. The conclusion is lackluster to the point of undermining any other effective quality in the piece.
3. The New House: I'm hoping this issue of pacing doesn't continue through the rest of these stories. Fremlin sets an effective tone and builds suspense towards a climax, but that climax seems to come too suddenly and leaves a sense of dissatisfaction.
4. Last Day of Spring: A triumph, and managed in such few words. The best so far, and not particularly close to the three that came before.
5. The Special Gift: A lovely tale that blends all too real social horror with the suggestion of the supernatural, or at least the incomprehensible. Enjoyable from start to finish.
6. Old Daniel's Treasure: There seems to be some significance to Thursday for Fremlin. One could see it as an island, trapped between the week and weekend, but for the older characters it seemingly haunts it is a horror of the lives of others, taking their private joys and leaving the old in private misery. On the whole, this story is an entertaining piece of irony.
7. For Ever Fair: Another solid story that leaves you wanting just a little bit more.
8. The Irony of Fate: A bit of a miss - the moral centre of this story seems juvenile.
9. The Baby Sitter: Leaves a pit of despair in the stomach, not at any real feeling of dread for mother and child but for the vomit-inducing xenophobia of the viewpoint character. This is clearly intentional, and makes for a decently compelling read.
10. The Hated House: This brings a deeply compassionate understanding out of well-trod domestic scenes, although it does appear a bit rushed in its conclusion.
11. Angel-Face: “Look, Mummy!” he exclaimed, bringing the book over to me “Look, this one hasn’t got a beak!”
Excellent.
12. The Fated Interview: There is the potential for a compelling mystery and resolution here, but Fremlin's tendency to rush is at its worst. The seeds of the revelation are never planted, and so the audience is not able to speculate or engage in any meaningful sense.
13. The Locked Room: A thin idea that would not really benefit from further exploration nor from the brief telling Fremlin provides. A weak ending to a collection plagued by weak endings.
December 10, 2024
The horrors of being a woman…
Celia Fremlin seems to be having a moment just now, due to some of her books and stories being republished by Faber and Faber. I’ve only read one of her novels, Uncle Paul, which I loved (but didn’t get around to reviewing) so when a fellow blogger gave this one an enticing review, I snapped it up. This is a collection of thirteen short stories all written prior to 1970 as far as I can make out, many of them with a creepy edge, some even with a supernatural element, but mostly to do with the real-life horrors associated with being a woman! Motherhood, childlessness, step-motherhood, maternal anxiety, being dumped for a younger woman, growing old, becoming senile – Fremlin ruthlessly puts her female characters through the wringer, producing a set of stories that can occasionally be sad or bleak, but are mostly fun and entertaining. We have ghostly mothers reconnecting with daughters, flesh and blood mothers protecting children from (possible) ghosts and murderers, baby-sitters who might be evil or they might be good, unfaithful men getting their comeuppance, and old women left lonely at the end of life. I think there is only one story with a man as the central character, and his story turned out to be one of my least favourite.
The ones I enjoyed most were those that had a touch of horror or danger about them, but that’s due to personal preference. The other stories that depend more on the emotional side of being a woman are just as good in a different way. They often have a little twist at the end which makes them fun and on the whole she’s kind to her characters which, in all but a couple of cases, stops the stories from becoming too bleak. Overall, I gave nine of the thirteen stories either four or five stars and there were only a couple I really didn’t enjoy much – the bleaker ones – so overall, I thought the standard was very high.
As always, here’s a brief flavour of some my favourites…
The Special Gift – Eileen hosts a group for aspiring writers, and one evening a new person come along – a strange little man called Alan Fitzroy. He insists on reading from his work-in-progress at great length. Amid the mad ramblings he calls an autobiography, he tells of a dream, in which he is walking along a long corridor towards a cradle. He knows if he gets there, he'll have to get into the cradle where he will see the Face and go mad. Then later he tells Eileen how he got his wife to share his dream… 😱 This is a great horror story, chilling, imaginative, funny.
For Ever Fair – Our narrator is a middle-aged woman whose husband has developed an infatuation for an 18-year-old girl. So in desperation the narrator is visiting a quack doctor who advertises in the papers that he can restore lost youth. I’m not going to say more in order not to spoil the story, but it’s deliciously bitter and a whole lot of fun!
The Baby-Sitter – Daphne and Tim are leaving their four-year-old, Susan, with a baby-sitter they don’t know but who has been highly recommended by friends, a refugee from Central Europe. Daphne is reluctant to leave the child with a stranger, especially since Susan has been troubled recently by dreams of a monster she calls “The Hen with Great Big Eyes”. But Tim talks her round and off they go. Later, as Daphne sits in the theatre, worrying, she remembers that the baby-sitter is called Mrs Hahn and begins to wonder… is Hahn the German for Hen?? This is a great picture of maternal anxiety run out of control and a lovely mix of tension and humour.
The Fated Interview – Lydia, dumped by her long-term lover in favour of another woman, has left her old job in the same firm as him. She’s now working in Market Research which she hates, and has to find some AB males to complete her current survey. After being rejected by several men she accosts in the street, she is approached by a man who definitely dresses and talks like an AB and offers to do the questionnaire over a coffee. But is he what he seems? This story is both funny and sad, but mostly funny, and it has a killer last line!
Angel-Face – Our narrator is stepmother to a little boy, Simon. Outwardly she's kind and loving to Simon, but inwardly she finds him an unattractive, snivelling, annoying, unboyish kind of boy. His father is bringing him up as a rational atheist, and she goes along with this though she thinks it’s a bit silly. Simon's teacher tells them that angels exist, and Simon believes this though he doesn’t really understand what angels are. Having been told that they have wings, he starts having nightmares that an angel with a beak and claws is coming for him... This is quite a humorous story, especially when discussing the narrator’s attempts to love this child she finds so annoying. It gets creepy as it goes on and has a darkly comic twist in the ending, but it’s more about the horrors of being a step-mother than anything else!
It seems there’s no escape from the horrors of being a woman! Married, single, mother or childless – we are all doomed! A thoroughly enjoyable collection – entertaining, imaginative and very well-written. It would be a great introduction to Celia Fremlin’s work if you haven’t come across her before, and I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of her.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
Celia Fremlin seems to be having a moment just now, due to some of her books and stories being republished by Faber and Faber. I’ve only read one of her novels, Uncle Paul, which I loved (but didn’t get around to reviewing) so when a fellow blogger gave this one an enticing review, I snapped it up. This is a collection of thirteen short stories all written prior to 1970 as far as I can make out, many of them with a creepy edge, some even with a supernatural element, but mostly to do with the real-life horrors associated with being a woman! Motherhood, childlessness, step-motherhood, maternal anxiety, being dumped for a younger woman, growing old, becoming senile – Fremlin ruthlessly puts her female characters through the wringer, producing a set of stories that can occasionally be sad or bleak, but are mostly fun and entertaining. We have ghostly mothers reconnecting with daughters, flesh and blood mothers protecting children from (possible) ghosts and murderers, baby-sitters who might be evil or they might be good, unfaithful men getting their comeuppance, and old women left lonely at the end of life. I think there is only one story with a man as the central character, and his story turned out to be one of my least favourite.
The ones I enjoyed most were those that had a touch of horror or danger about them, but that’s due to personal preference. The other stories that depend more on the emotional side of being a woman are just as good in a different way. They often have a little twist at the end which makes them fun and on the whole she’s kind to her characters which, in all but a couple of cases, stops the stories from becoming too bleak. Overall, I gave nine of the thirteen stories either four or five stars and there were only a couple I really didn’t enjoy much – the bleaker ones – so overall, I thought the standard was very high.
As always, here’s a brief flavour of some my favourites…
The Special Gift – Eileen hosts a group for aspiring writers, and one evening a new person come along – a strange little man called Alan Fitzroy. He insists on reading from his work-in-progress at great length. Amid the mad ramblings he calls an autobiography, he tells of a dream, in which he is walking along a long corridor towards a cradle. He knows if he gets there, he'll have to get into the cradle where he will see the Face and go mad. Then later he tells Eileen how he got his wife to share his dream… 😱 This is a great horror story, chilling, imaginative, funny.
For Ever Fair – Our narrator is a middle-aged woman whose husband has developed an infatuation for an 18-year-old girl. So in desperation the narrator is visiting a quack doctor who advertises in the papers that he can restore lost youth. I’m not going to say more in order not to spoil the story, but it’s deliciously bitter and a whole lot of fun!
The Baby-Sitter – Daphne and Tim are leaving their four-year-old, Susan, with a baby-sitter they don’t know but who has been highly recommended by friends, a refugee from Central Europe. Daphne is reluctant to leave the child with a stranger, especially since Susan has been troubled recently by dreams of a monster she calls “The Hen with Great Big Eyes”. But Tim talks her round and off they go. Later, as Daphne sits in the theatre, worrying, she remembers that the baby-sitter is called Mrs Hahn and begins to wonder… is Hahn the German for Hen?? This is a great picture of maternal anxiety run out of control and a lovely mix of tension and humour.
The Fated Interview – Lydia, dumped by her long-term lover in favour of another woman, has left her old job in the same firm as him. She’s now working in Market Research which she hates, and has to find some AB males to complete her current survey. After being rejected by several men she accosts in the street, she is approached by a man who definitely dresses and talks like an AB and offers to do the questionnaire over a coffee. But is he what he seems? This story is both funny and sad, but mostly funny, and it has a killer last line!
Angel-Face – Our narrator is stepmother to a little boy, Simon. Outwardly she's kind and loving to Simon, but inwardly she finds him an unattractive, snivelling, annoying, unboyish kind of boy. His father is bringing him up as a rational atheist, and she goes along with this though she thinks it’s a bit silly. Simon's teacher tells them that angels exist, and Simon believes this though he doesn’t really understand what angels are. Having been told that they have wings, he starts having nightmares that an angel with a beak and claws is coming for him... This is quite a humorous story, especially when discussing the narrator’s attempts to love this child she finds so annoying. It gets creepy as it goes on and has a darkly comic twist in the ending, but it’s more about the horrors of being a step-mother than anything else!
It seems there’s no escape from the horrors of being a woman! Married, single, mother or childless – we are all doomed! A thoroughly enjoyable collection – entertaining, imaginative and very well-written. It would be a great introduction to Celia Fremlin’s work if you haven’t come across her before, and I’m certainly looking forward to reading more of her.
www.fictionfanblog.wordpress.com
March 28, 2025
This book marks the last time I take recommendations from Instagram book content creators because the misleading of plots is getting ridiculous. I THOUGHT THIS BOOK WAS SUPPOSED TO BE SCARY!!
I did not feel scared once. Because this is a short story collection, I felt like there wasn't enough time for the stories to even become scary because as soon as something slightly suspenseful happens, the story was over. Also the characters names keep repeating throughout all the stories and it becomes quite difficult to follow, as although each story is separate from the others in the collection, the constant re-using of names makes it seem like all the stories are interconnected. The same themes keep coming up as well throughout which makes the stories become tedious and predictable. It's either the character has a dream then the events of the dream happen, or the character has some interaction with children who predict a thing and then it happens or something along those lines - which obviously became boring very fast.
No quotes because I was bored and nothing stood out.
Thoughts on individual stories:
Story 1 - The Quiet Game - 2/5
hate kids but hate old people complaining equally if not more. at least if ur gonna have kids don’t throw yourself out the window like the mother in this story did
short story 2 - women goes to meet man who is terminally ill, he wants her to bring him sleeping pills so he can end it but she doesn’t want too so she swaps the pills. doesnt find out until the next day that when she had put the pills down to touch up her makeup she picked up the wrong pills and gave them to him and he died. she definitely did it on purpose. 2/5
short story 3 - haunted house but the protagonists sister cheated with her husband and had her child then both cheaters died leaving the protagonist with their daughter. protagonists sister haunts her daughter bc shes crazy. first story that actually kinda spooked me. 3/5
short story 4 - what i imagine dementia is like. old couple live in a retirement home, the lady wants to make her husband eggs one day but when she goes to give them too him theres already 5 plates of eggs. he’s not there either. then she remembers he’s in the hospital but when she goes there he doesnt exist. 2/5
short story 5 - writing club man is writing an autobiography about a dream he has which is boring but one day his wife says she can hear this noise in his brain while he’s hearing it in the dream. writing club ends, everyone leaves then the host starts to hear the same noise, and when she walks into the room the man who’s story it is is dead on her floor. 3/5
short story 6 - man dies. home intrusion. 2/5
short story 7 - husband is cheating on his wife with 18 year old child. wife is upset and seeks out anti-aging serum that supposedly makes her looking young again to see if that resparks the husbands interest in her. looks at before and after photos of clients who have received the injection and see’s the lady her husband is cheating on her with. She’s actually like 100 years old. DRAMAAAAA. 3/5
short story 8 - women gets in train crash and hates her husband so pretends to be more injured than she is to make him feel bad. 3/5
short story 9 - mother is worried for child basically 1.5/5
short story 10 - ghosts. 2/5
short story 11 - eh super bored by this one 1.5/5
short story 12 - more kids seeing people. tired of it. 1.5/5
I did not feel scared once. Because this is a short story collection, I felt like there wasn't enough time for the stories to even become scary because as soon as something slightly suspenseful happens, the story was over. Also the characters names keep repeating throughout all the stories and it becomes quite difficult to follow, as although each story is separate from the others in the collection, the constant re-using of names makes it seem like all the stories are interconnected. The same themes keep coming up as well throughout which makes the stories become tedious and predictable. It's either the character has a dream then the events of the dream happen, or the character has some interaction with children who predict a thing and then it happens or something along those lines - which obviously became boring very fast.
No quotes because I was bored and nothing stood out.
Thoughts on individual stories:
Story 1 - The Quiet Game - 2/5
hate kids but hate old people complaining equally if not more. at least if ur gonna have kids don’t throw yourself out the window like the mother in this story did
short story 2 - women goes to meet man who is terminally ill, he wants her to bring him sleeping pills so he can end it but she doesn’t want too so she swaps the pills. doesnt find out until the next day that when she had put the pills down to touch up her makeup she picked up the wrong pills and gave them to him and he died. she definitely did it on purpose. 2/5
short story 3 - haunted house but the protagonists sister cheated with her husband and had her child then both cheaters died leaving the protagonist with their daughter. protagonists sister haunts her daughter bc shes crazy. first story that actually kinda spooked me. 3/5
short story 4 - what i imagine dementia is like. old couple live in a retirement home, the lady wants to make her husband eggs one day but when she goes to give them too him theres already 5 plates of eggs. he’s not there either. then she remembers he’s in the hospital but when she goes there he doesnt exist. 2/5
short story 5 - writing club man is writing an autobiography about a dream he has which is boring but one day his wife says she can hear this noise in his brain while he’s hearing it in the dream. writing club ends, everyone leaves then the host starts to hear the same noise, and when she walks into the room the man who’s story it is is dead on her floor. 3/5
short story 6 - man dies. home intrusion. 2/5
short story 7 - husband is cheating on his wife with 18 year old child. wife is upset and seeks out anti-aging serum that supposedly makes her looking young again to see if that resparks the husbands interest in her. looks at before and after photos of clients who have received the injection and see’s the lady her husband is cheating on her with. She’s actually like 100 years old. DRAMAAAAA. 3/5
short story 8 - women gets in train crash and hates her husband so pretends to be more injured than she is to make him feel bad. 3/5
short story 9 - mother is worried for child basically 1.5/5
short story 10 - ghosts. 2/5
short story 11 - eh super bored by this one 1.5/5
short story 12 - more kids seeing people. tired of it. 1.5/5
November 4, 2025
Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark is a collection of 13 Fremlin short stories that was first published in 1970. It was her first collection of her short stories which she had previously published in magazines such as She, Playmen, and Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. It was reissued by Fremlin publisher Faber and Faber in 2024 in this great Halloween -themed cover:
Despite this cover, these stories are really less horror and more typical Fremlin psychological thrillers, although Fremlin does try some intriguing supernatural elements and have stories with some unusual nightmarish visions. As with her novels, Fremlin avoids being too gruesome, and tries to avoid inflicting too high of a level of trauma on her generally female protagonists.
An advantage to the short story format is that a writer can try out an off-beat idea that isn't clear or weighty enough for a novel. For instance, the supernatural elements would have been really difficult to sustain in a novel. In many instances, Fremlin's had an intriguing idea but did not completely execute it on paper. But I accept and appreciate the imagination and effort put in.
The result was a hit and miss collection. While I wavered between rating this as 3 or 4 stars through the read, largely dependent on the quality of the last-read story, I came down on a 4-star rating. Most of the stories did work and even with those that Fremlin did not really pull off, her imagination and witty, insightful character and societal commentary still made the story a worthwhile read. I rate this as 3.7 rounded up to 4 stars.
MY RATINGS FOR FREMLINS
(Instead of rating 4.5 or 3.5 stars I rate at 4.3, 3.7 and 3.3 stars for better rounding)
4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 - Dangerous Thoughts
4.3 – The Spider Orchid
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.0 - Prisoner’s Base
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
4.0 – The Echoing Stones
3.7 – King of the World
3.7 - Uncle Paul
3.7 – The Parasite Person
3.7 – With No Crying
3.7 - Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark
3.7 – Ghostly Stories
3.3 – Seven Lean Years
3.3 – Listening in the Dusk
3.3 – Appointment With Yesterday
Despite this cover, these stories are really less horror and more typical Fremlin psychological thrillers, although Fremlin does try some intriguing supernatural elements and have stories with some unusual nightmarish visions. As with her novels, Fremlin avoids being too gruesome, and tries to avoid inflicting too high of a level of trauma on her generally female protagonists.An advantage to the short story format is that a writer can try out an off-beat idea that isn't clear or weighty enough for a novel. For instance, the supernatural elements would have been really difficult to sustain in a novel. In many instances, Fremlin's had an intriguing idea but did not completely execute it on paper. But I accept and appreciate the imagination and effort put in.
The result was a hit and miss collection. While I wavered between rating this as 3 or 4 stars through the read, largely dependent on the quality of the last-read story, I came down on a 4-star rating. Most of the stories did work and even with those that Fremlin did not really pull off, her imagination and witty, insightful character and societal commentary still made the story a worthwhile read. I rate this as 3.7 rounded up to 4 stars.
MY RATINGS FOR FREMLINS
(Instead of rating 4.5 or 3.5 stars I rate at 4.3, 3.7 and 3.3 stars for better rounding)
4.3 - The Long Shadow
4.3 - Dangerous Thoughts
4.3 – The Spider Orchid
4.3 – The Hours Before Dawn
4.3 – The Jealous One
4.0 - Prisoner’s Base
4.0 – The Trouble Makers
4.0 – The Echoing Stones
3.7 – King of the World
3.7 - Uncle Paul
3.7 – The Parasite Person
3.7 – With No Crying
3.7 - Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark
3.7 – Ghostly Stories
3.3 – Seven Lean Years
3.3 – Listening in the Dusk
3.3 – Appointment With Yesterday
October 29, 2024
This collection of short stories is AMAZING! Every single one of these stories had me on the edge of my seat and wanting to pause time a la Bernard’s Watch just to sit and read it all in one go.
These stories are perfect for spooky season! 5 stars.
These stories are perfect for spooky season! 5 stars.
January 6, 2025
Really good collection of short stories. Strange and uncanny, sometimes unnerving, on the edge between the real and imagined. And very well written, near timelessly: for a work first published some 50 years ago, it's impressive how it reads like a recent publication.
January 23, 2025
4.5 ⭐️
Glaçant et dérangeant, avec parfois une pointe d'humour noir. De manière insidieuse, Celia Fremlin réussit à nous faire ressentir de la peur et du malaise en quelques mots. Avec son écriture décalée, elle glisse dans certaines histoires des commentaires sur la jalousie, la parentalité, la vieillesse... J'ai vraiment beaucoup aimé lire ces nouvelles, avec une mention spéciale pour "The New House" (qui m'a fait me dire : "c'est exactement ça que j'aime dans la littérature d'horreur !") et "The Special Gift", mes deux préférées.
Glaçant et dérangeant, avec parfois une pointe d'humour noir. De manière insidieuse, Celia Fremlin réussit à nous faire ressentir de la peur et du malaise en quelques mots. Avec son écriture décalée, elle glisse dans certaines histoires des commentaires sur la jalousie, la parentalité, la vieillesse... J'ai vraiment beaucoup aimé lire ces nouvelles, avec une mention spéciale pour "The New House" (qui m'a fait me dire : "c'est exactement ça que j'aime dans la littérature d'horreur !") et "The Special Gift", mes deux préférées.
August 29, 2025
4.5 stars.
Loneliness, motherhood, ageing, loads of clunking footsteps, domestic fear and the general horrors of being a woman. Short, sharp stories that will grab you by the neck and chill the spine.
Loneliness, motherhood, ageing, loads of clunking footsteps, domestic fear and the general horrors of being a woman. Short, sharp stories that will grab you by the neck and chill the spine.
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February 27, 2025Really enjoyed these stories, will have to try one of her novels soon. Full of story twists and leaving darkness in all the right places that leaves you wondering..
April 30, 2025
A wonderfully unnerving set of tales from an author very much ahead of her time. Celia Fremlin writes such unsettling tales that I couldn’t help being absorbed by each and every one.
There are some great stories here; dark shadows at night, an unusual babysitter, a new house, to name just a few. Hugely evocative of the sixties -but with an additional chill.
There are some great stories here; dark shadows at night, an unusual babysitter, a new house, to name just a few. Hugely evocative of the sixties -but with an additional chill.
October 24, 2025
only liked one of the stories I fear, and I was not a fan of the writing style
November 1, 2024
Celia Fremlin was a great author who doesn’t get enough attention.
This collection of short stories isn’t so much spooky as dark and surreal. Great reads for cold October nights.
This collection of short stories isn’t so much spooky as dark and surreal. Great reads for cold October nights.
March 4, 2019
I'm glad Faber&Faber resurrected the stories of Celia Fremlin and produced this collection. I had never heard of her before, but apparently she was quite prolific. The stories were a little dark and twisty, focusing mainly on female characters and childhood. Many were quite short with a jolt of a twist at the end. A few were predictable, but still well written. In each of them, the reader is thrust into the action straight away in the first paragraph if not the first sentence. Several will stay with me long after reading.
April 21, 2025
Overall 3.75/5
The Quiet Game 3.75/5
The Betrayl 2.5/5
The New House 3.5/5
Last Day of Spring 3/5
The Special Gift 4.5/5
Old Daniel’s Treasure 3/5
For Ever Fair 3/5
The Irony of Fate 2.5/5
The Baby-Sitter 3.5/5
The Hated House 3/5
Angel Face 3/5
The Fated Interview 4/5
The Locked Room 4.5/5
The Quiet Game 3.75/5
The Betrayl 2.5/5
The New House 3.5/5
Last Day of Spring 3/5
The Special Gift 4.5/5
Old Daniel’s Treasure 3/5
For Ever Fair 3/5
The Irony of Fate 2.5/5
The Baby-Sitter 3.5/5
The Hated House 3/5
Angel Face 3/5
The Fated Interview 4/5
The Locked Room 4.5/5
February 7, 2025
This book was perfect for commuting to work 😁 really enjoyed these twisted short stories.
November 1, 2024
When I was a smaller human I very much liked a book called the great automatic grammitizer. Which was a collection of short stories by Roald Dahl. A tangent - after reading all of his adult fiction a couple of years ago I've gone a little off Mr Dahl in my old age. I think he was probably a horrible little man. But I'll always love the books of my youth. Nor do I think any of them should be rewritten or altered to fit with modern standards of non dickishness. I also don't typically go off an author because they might be mean, it's just some of his adult stories were very not okay and the not okayness of them very much match how people have spoke of his own character. Anyway the thing I loved about the great automatic grammitizer was the dark unexpected twist to the tales, always entirely plausible, very smart and very satisfying. A bit like the feeling you get reading the conclusion of an Agatha. And the collection of stories by Celia Fremlin gave this too. Each story is about 12 pages, there's not really a weak link in the collection and it has a lovely cover. October has been a terrible month for book choices, Celia sweeping in at the end was a very welcome surprise. I also don't like reviewing short stories hence talking about anything but the book in question here. I bestow it a 5/5.
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October 30, 2024Celia Fremlin demonstrates the perfect balance between domesticity and psychological thriller in her collection of short stories, Don’t Go to Sleep in the Dark.
What I found most interesting was that each story encapsulated the day to day issues we all go through with family, love and life but is able to make it gritty and tension filled. Each story was different and exciting in its own way. Although short stories aren’t always my favourite, Fremlin was able to entice me to keep reading. I very much enjoyed myself.
These were perfect reads in the build up to Halloween, giving a spooky narrative that keeps you guessing.
My favourite stories from the collection:
* The Quiet Game
* The Special Gift
* Last day of Spring
Overall, the twisty and dark nature of this collection of short stories is what kept me hooked. I can totally imagine most of these being full length novels with how much there is to play with in terms of plot and characterisation!
Would highly recommend adding to your spooky season tbr.
What I found most interesting was that each story encapsulated the day to day issues we all go through with family, love and life but is able to make it gritty and tension filled. Each story was different and exciting in its own way. Although short stories aren’t always my favourite, Fremlin was able to entice me to keep reading. I very much enjoyed myself.
These were perfect reads in the build up to Halloween, giving a spooky narrative that keeps you guessing.
My favourite stories from the collection:
* The Quiet Game
* The Special Gift
* Last day of Spring
Overall, the twisty and dark nature of this collection of short stories is what kept me hooked. I can totally imagine most of these being full length novels with how much there is to play with in terms of plot and characterisation!
Would highly recommend adding to your spooky season tbr.
December 26, 2024
I feel that I've been letting myself down by only discovering Celia Fremlin now- as someone who loves Roald Dahl's nasty missives from grey, drab England, to read a writer of a similar skill dealing with the same period and people, but tackling it from a female perspective, has been an absolute treat.
These stories are seething with the misery of suburban life, where women are either too old or too powerless, trapped in houses with children that drive them insane, or that they drive insane, subject to the barely caring whims of the men around them that appear to breeze through life, unaware of the horrors besetting the women they are in relationships with.
They're told with such precise, gleefully dripped poison and sorrow that Fremlin creates a world in less than 200 pages that will stay with me for months. As an insight into the gender politics of the mid to late 20th century, or just as twisty tales of suspense and malice, this collection is near perfect, and one of the best things I've read in 2024. Highly recommended.
These stories are seething with the misery of suburban life, where women are either too old or too powerless, trapped in houses with children that drive them insane, or that they drive insane, subject to the barely caring whims of the men around them that appear to breeze through life, unaware of the horrors besetting the women they are in relationships with.
They're told with such precise, gleefully dripped poison and sorrow that Fremlin creates a world in less than 200 pages that will stay with me for months. As an insight into the gender politics of the mid to late 20th century, or just as twisty tales of suspense and malice, this collection is near perfect, and one of the best things I've read in 2024. Highly recommended.
March 17, 2025
I'm a big fan of anthology's so I knew going into it that this would definitely be worth the listen when I found it. I feel the true test of an author is being able to engage your audience, consistently, in a short story format, which Celia Fremlin unquestionably achieves with each and every one of these stories. Each one has the subtle ability to create tension, leading to thrilling and often spine chilling in their own individual ways. Another reason I positively love short stories is because they deliver a variety of settings and plots in small and easy to digest bites, rather than having to make a significant time or mental investment into a drawn out storyline. Overall, this was an excellent collection of stories, and the audiobook has an incredible narrator with an excellent pace that is easy to listen to.
July 20, 2025
I'm torn between 2* and 3* for this collection, chiefly because so many of the stories end with a whimper, being both predictable and underwhelming. However, when Fremlin gets it right she has a nice line in domestic horror and shows how claustrophobic and maddening a woman's life could be in the late 1960s/early 1970s. No E-Types and miniskirts here, just tinned food, the strains of motherhood, and a plethora of unsympathetic men. The story which pushed this to a 3* is 'Angel-Face', which is both subtly weird in a Rosemary Timperley sort of way and more seriously wrong (in a Mark Fisher sort of way). If you've read this story, that Robbie Williams song will be transformed forever (and not before time!).
November 12, 2024
These are wonderful little tales of suspense. There' a bit of the supernatural, a bit of crime. Plenty of twists. Possibly not quite as terrifying as the title might suggest - I got frissons, rather than chills - these are fun and deliciously twisty.
That said, the story, "Angel-Face" has long been one of my favourite horror stories ever since I came across it in a horror short story collection. I was never able to find it again when I went looking (too many horror short story books?), so I was delighted to finally track it down here.
Very English, a bit old-fashioned, this collection could well be the missing link between E.F. Benson and Roald Dahl.
That said, the story, "Angel-Face" has long been one of my favourite horror stories ever since I came across it in a horror short story collection. I was never able to find it again when I went looking (too many horror short story books?), so I was delighted to finally track it down here.
Very English, a bit old-fashioned, this collection could well be the missing link between E.F. Benson and Roald Dahl.
February 3, 2022
For all the hooing and hawing about "the (feminine) midcentury masters of domestic suspense" that I've been seeing these days, most of the books (save Highsmith and Hughes) are grossly overrated. Just what was it about Holding that so enamored Chandler? Fortunately, the surprisingly little known Fremlin in this little volume of stories makes a case makes a strong case for her revival. Although purists my be put off by the supernatural tinge of some stories, the overwhelming sense of domestic unease and dread had me wanting more. Next stop: her 1960 Edgar winner THE HOURS BEFORE DAWN.
November 8, 2024
2.75 stars rounded up. An appropriately numbered 13 gothic short stories. I’m guessing they were written in the 1979s or so, as there was a slight dating to the language and norms of the day (women as housewives, their husbands out to work, etc.). Some were OK, some didn’t really make much sense (“Angel-Face”), but the better ones for me were “The Baby-Sitter” with the hen, “The Hated House” with the strange visiting girl, and “The Fated Interview” with the market research, I think. Might also include “The Locked Room” as well… those 4 stories are right at the end of the collection though.
March 29, 2025
This book got sent by a friend as she thought i'd like it and it is a genre i like to read however I'm not very good with short stories to be honest.
The idea of a haunted babysitter, a teenage girl getting a mysterious unexpected visitor when home alone one evening and a little boy obsessed with ghost.
Though i found it to be atmospheric in its telling at times , i did not find it to be spooky at all . It left me unaffected at the end of each story which was rather a disappointment for me .
The idea of a haunted babysitter, a teenage girl getting a mysterious unexpected visitor when home alone one evening and a little boy obsessed with ghost.
Though i found it to be atmospheric in its telling at times , i did not find it to be spooky at all . It left me unaffected at the end of each story which was rather a disappointment for me .
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